Home again .......

I hope that everyone, wherever you are, however you celebrate it, had a lovely Christmas, if indeed you do celebrate the festival.

Mine was fun and it was spent in Cambridge and there were 10 for lunch - 6 adults and 4 children AND it was the first time my son M had celebrated Christmas (and cooked the lunch) in his own home!! At this stage there were only six of us so on Christmas Eve afternoon we walked to Great St Mary's to take part in the children's service and granddaughter Ellie dressed up as an angel and took part in the service.

Next morning we were up early as Father Christmas had been visiting the house, so stockings were opened, we had a quick breakfast, put the turkey into the oven and then I cycled with everyone to church for the Christmas morning family service. Ellie was asked to light the crib candle and grandson B was asked to carry up the basket of Christmas stars with the congregation's wishes on, to the altar. It was a lovely service, but Grandma (who is a retired vicar) and I (I am Granny) found it strange that there were still tourists coming into the church whilst the service was going on!! Quick bicycle home where M and I went into overdrive whilst we carried on with the cooking. At this stage we were joined by Grandma's other daughter and son-in law and two little girls and the party was complete. All the children were then sent outside to play football and run off some energy - very wise as they were now over-excited!! M has a pavilion next to his home and so he had decided that we would have lunch there and it worked so well. 'Snow' fell on the way to lunch -

Crystals + water

= snow!!

- the floral table centre that I made with the grandchildren was admired and the candles were lit and we had a splendid meal, with the sun streaming in so we had to put up a blind. The temperature rose and we were in short sleeves!!

In our family if you cook the meal you don't have to wash up and so I had a welcome break before it was time to have Christmas presents .....

Presents round the tree!!

...chaos then ensued as the children unwrapped and parents tried to keep a list of who gave what to whom! This took all afternoon and then we played board games until supper and bed for the children who were all sleeping together in one room. They must have been tired as they went to sleep very quickly.

Next morning we had a late 'brunch' before we headed off to the pantomime, Aladdin, at the Cambridge Arts Theatre.  It was brilliant, with a baddie who we all booed, Widow Twankey the pantomime Dame, Wishee Washee who we all cheered when he came on stage, principal boy and principal girl, the usual local jokes, a song for the the audience to sing and of course, "look behind you"!!! We all enjoyed it in our own ways, even Ellie who was frightened by the baddie (who we all booed) and hid when he came on stage, said she loved it.

After a late tea I was told I couldn't go home until I had had my bag of Boxing Day gifts! This was completely new to me, but was a family tradition for my daughter in law and again was great fun as nothing was serious or expensive - a new tea towel, bedsocks etc. How kind. So I left for home in an absolute cloudburst and atrocious road conditions, but nothing obliterated the memories of a very happy family Christmas. Thank you to M and his family.